Is RG6 Wire RG6 Wire?

[AlaJoe]

I will be getting Dish Network installed next week. To save any disputes with the installer over how I want things done I am going to run all my wires myself so I am going to have to buy my own wire, which brings me to my question. Is RG6 Wire RG6 Wire? I went buy Home Depot today and they two kinds one just said RG6 the other said Quad Shielded and cost a bit more. The plain RG6 was available in White or Black and I would rather have white. The Quad shield was black only. Is there any compelling reason to buy the more expensive?
And further, on wall plates I am going to buy these also. Is one as good as another?

 

[twodutys]

The Belden Tri-shield is the only way to go. You just can't get good quality at Home Depot.

 

[StevenD]

Make sure its swept to at least 2200MHz

 

[AlaJoe]

What is wrong with the home depot brand?

So what about the HomeDepot wire is inferior? What will happen if I use it?

I click the Dish Store link on this site and it has this wire,

Black RG6 Cable from Various Manufacturers

Sweep Tested to 2200 MHz
Black Color Cable
Perfect for DishPro Installations

This seems to imply that this wire would be suitable and it comes from basically who ever is giving them the best deal on wire as they say various brands, could be the home depot brand.

 

[AlaJoe]

Steven

So iff the wire says 3000MHZ on it it should be more than sufficient?

 

[Mike500]

Any good quality rg6 will handle 2.2 Ghz, although it may not state that it has been sweep tested. Some sweep tested to 2.2 Ghz is actually not as good as another brand NOT sweep tested at that frequency.

Any brand name coax like Commscope, Belden, or Times Fiber will be of the highest quality, even if it is not sweep tested to 2.2 Ghz. Some cable made and sold for satellite TV and swept to 2.2 Ghz is pretty low quality.

So, I examine the cable, itself, to determine quality.

Home Depot cable is made by General Cable of Pawtucket, RI, previously in the USA, and now in China. I have examined it and used it in the past. It is good quality and would be fine for DishPro installations. It is also sold under the Carol cable brand. I have a roll of Carol cable made in 1997, and consider it to be one of the highest quality cables I have ever seen. The current cable has slipped a little in overall quality, but is still totally adequate for DishPro installations.

 

[AlaJoe]

Thank You Mike.

The wire I was looking at did in fact have the Carol name on it so can I assume from what you are saying there is no reason to buy the Quad Shield instead of the plain RG6 as the plain wire should do fine.

There will be no dioplexers used in my install and no run will be over 50 feet.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Heck - no run over 50 feet?

You could use tincans and string.

BTW, I have never found any reason to use QuadShield. Could someone enlighten me as to why I should go to the expense of using overpriced cable and fittings, and buying a new compression tool?

 

[kbohip]

I just used some old wire I found in my closet. I think it was left over from Cablevision when they did my install . The picture is great! Of course my run is only about 8 feet.

 

[stone phillips420]

i prefer rg11 imho

 

[stone phillips420]

Heck - no run over 50 feet?

You could use tincans and string.

BTW, I have never found any reason to use QuadShield. Could someone enlighten me as to why I should go to the expense of using overpriced cable and fittings, and buying a new compression tool?

i love overpriced cable, you spend x amount on receivers why not take 25 percent of what you spent on receivers and get kickass cable

to each their own

 

[xcableguy]

quad shield helps if you are near any transmissions that may cause interference.

 

[Foxbat]

quad shield helps if you are near any transmissions that may cause interference.

Yeah, I'm within timber range of a few of the TV towers on the south side of SBN. Once, I won a telephone, but I had to give it away since it picked up one of the local AM stations louder than the person on the other end of the phoneline.

 

[KE4EST]

AlaJoe, unless money is no object get the reg rg-6 at home depot.If You buy quad sheild it takes a different connecter and crimping tool that I bet the installer won't have. If you you want to pay for expensive cable buy the connecters and tools needed to put the ends on it. The Reg stuff will work just fine.


I think Stone Phillps was jokeing if he wasn't like he said to each his own, but unless you will running over 500ft, you don't need it. RG-11 is a different story in it own.(that stuff is a big fat cable with special connecters and crimping tools, made for low loss really long runs at lower freqs) if you find it for higher freqs like 2200 Mhz it is like $3 a foot.


hope this helps

 

[RandallA]

When I had Comcast, I needed a long run from the garage to the living room (about 100 ft). I bought RG6 cable and I was getting ingress (Vertical Bars in the lower channels), I live near TV towers. I couldn't figure it out why until someone in another forum told me to use Quad shielded cable. Went to Home Depot and got 150ft of this Carol RG6 Quad and the problem went away.

Do you need Quad RG6 cable for Satellite TV? I don't know the answer but if it's only a few more bucks and you might needed in the future.
My two cents....

I've attached the specs for the Carol quad cable (5785).

 

[DNSdishdude]

all rg6 is not created equal make sure it is rated to at least2.25Ghz,3.0 is best,that is the highest rated RG6 you can get and it does'nt matter if it quad shielded or just single unless you are planing to diplex a backfeed from a dual tuner receiver,the feed will still look good on single shielded but better on quad,same thing with wall plates,the barrel should be rated to at least 2.25 Ghz

 

[Barry Erick]

BTW, I have never found any reason to use QuadShield. Could someone enlighten me as to why I should go to the expense of using overpriced cable and fittings, and buying a new compression tool?

Yes, I have a reason. We have pictures at work of squirells eating throgh plain RG6 taking our NBC network down witin 4 years of install. The replacement was quad shielded and that has lasted over 15 years.

 

[cdru]

BTW, I have never found any reason to use QuadShield. Could someone enlighten me as to why I should go to the expense of using overpriced cable and fittings, and buying a new compression tool?

I put it in the same boat as using Cat6 over Cat5e cable. Labor is the most expensive part of the installtion. If you are going to run the cable and you don't mind paying the extra for the extra shielding, go that route. Yeah you likely don't need it, but it sucks running the cable only to find out that you have RF ingress.

Why is the compression tool any different for QS as oppose to regular RG6? I understand the strippers and the connectors, but wouldn't the compression tool be the same?

 

[RandallA]

"but it sucks running the cable only to find out that you have RF ingress"

Tell me about it. I spent hours running the cable through the attic, just to find out that I had ingress. I learned my lesson and will be using Quad from now on. Plus you don't know what will be the cable requirements in the future.

 

[techdood]

I've found compression fittings to work better to keep the water from penetrating into the center conductor. This is especially true to those cable runs that carry power to a device. I've used crimps on some plates that were on on the insides of exterior walls, only to find 2 years later that I needed to replace them. all of them.